Vinted case study
Duration of case study: 3 days
word count: 1069
What is Vinted?
Vinted is a fashion e-commerce app with the aim of connecting everyday buyers and sellers to sell their own second-hand items and clothing at an affordable price. It is
However, from my personal experience, although Vinted offers a great platform for me to buy cheaper and more eco-friendly alternatives through second-hand products, I found that there are also several frustrating aspects in the app. Specifically on the search filters for specific clothing items, the poor quality of images and inaccurate description of certain objects from some sellers and lack of clarity on delivery process at times. To see if I was not the only one that felt this way, I went through several reviews in the app store as well as on trustpilot to compare and analyse what the public thought as well
Trustpilot offered an average rating of 3.3 out of 5, with the majority being 1 star reviews.
Looking through the reviews in the app, the average rating is 4.1 stars. Sifting through some of the reviews, most seem to complain mostly about
Problem statement:
Due to time constraints, I decided to focus on improving the navigation feature on vinted for buying specific clothing items. To provide users with a more organised, faster and more accessible manner that can be intuitively customised and sorted by users
Nice to haves for users (for future consideration):
- To include security/credibility feature for buyer and seller to avoid scams and provide easier and safer transactions
- To provide a tracking map option so users can safely track delivered items down and see if there are any errors or delays during delivery instead of holding sellers accountable.
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Prioritising design solutions through How Might We questions:
I decided to create and prioritise on 2 HMW questions and expand them into low fidelity prototypes as these seem the most sensible given the time limit and cost-effective solutions. Moreover, they are also equally important in improving the buyer’s user experience on vinted.
Low fidelity wireframes
Below are some low fidelity prototype sketches I made as quick design ideas to address the user problem of navigating specific items from the home feed and search filters
I have also attempted to redesign the profile page to organise the buyer and seller modes into neater sections.
Guerilla Testing
I then conducted usability testings with 2 research participants. One was an active vinted buyer and another was someone who had never used vinted before but enjoys online shopping on other apps.
User tasks outline
1. Navigating a certain clothing piece style from home page (bolero top)
2. Purchasing a bolero top from a seller and checking out
3. Switching from the perspective of a buyer to a seller on the app, organise your store/wardrobe
4. How would you sell a top on vinted, illustrate this for me
Interview questions:
- What applications do you think leave the best impression on you and why?
- Which parts do you find most frustrating with vinted and explain why?
- What is your first impression of the app, where is your eye drawn to first?
- What features or ideas would you think can be incorporated to improve your experience?
- Which profile page do you prefer to adapt and why
Usability testing 1; Findings and insights
What went well:
Finds the search bar for favorites category to be very useful and faster to navigate specific pieces in mind. Really liked incorporation of trend style names as well.
What needed improvements:
Want to add a basket feature to purchase several items from different buyers at once but at a discounted price for buyer seller protection scheme
Wanted to make buyer/seller section on profile mode less clunky with headers
Usability testing round 2; Findings and insights
I then did a second round of usability testing with the same users to compare whether these improvements and adjustments to my lo-fi prototypes were more effective.
What went well:
By providing more specific search filters but in less pages to organise clothing pieces, user satisfaction seemed alot better.
What needed improvements:
Generally, feedback was more positive and users seem alot more responsive with new adjustments
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In conclusion
Based on the new usability testing feedback and results, the new features incorporated on vinted seem to provide a clearer understanding for users to quickly browse through specific clothing items with more ease.
What next?
Moving forward and with more time, I would like to further explore the idea of incorporating a feauture to address the issue of increasing buyer and seller protection safety and credibility to prevent scams and miscommunications. Furthermore, incorporating a tracking map so as buyers and sellers can track their items on the vinted app itself rather than checking through an external source website (yodel and evri)
Bibliography:
https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/vinted.com?stars=1
https://londonrunway.co.uk/vinted-the-future-of-fashion/
